Review: Guards, Guards!, Terry Pratchett
Mar. 28th, 2010 07:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jeriendhalSummary: Young Carrot Ironfundasson, a six and half foot tall Dwarf (by adoption), leaves his childhood mine to journey to Ankh-Morpock to become a city watchman. Too bad the Patrician has reduced the Night Watch to a shadow of its former self, run by the drunken and disparing Captain Vimes, in favor of the Thieves Guild policing its own.
Unfortunately thieves (or guards for that matter) aren't much good against a dragon...
This is the first of the Watch books, and is a bit different from the later ones in the series, especially in the characterization department. Vimes isn't the Super Awesome snarker, he's a drunk and a bit of a coward, mumbling to himself in the face of authority. Carrot is a naif, not the quiet genius bruiser we love. Even the Patrician is a bit off making mistakes and occasionally having an emotional outburst. This is perhaps reflected in the slightly schizophrenic opening chapters, when Pratchett was still trying to make Carrot the viewpoint character, until he realized it should logically be Vimes. But once the dragon appears and the plot realy gets rolling, things thunder along in the typical Pratchettarian style of humor, action and trenchant observation.
The audio version I listened too was also a bit off. It has a different reader than the later novels, and he made the decision to do Vimes' lines with a bit of a drunken nasal echo the whole way through, which can get a bit tiresome to listen to.
Reccomended
Unfortunately thieves (or guards for that matter) aren't much good against a dragon...
This is the first of the Watch books, and is a bit different from the later ones in the series, especially in the characterization department. Vimes isn't the Super Awesome snarker, he's a drunk and a bit of a coward, mumbling to himself in the face of authority. Carrot is a naif, not the quiet genius bruiser we love. Even the Patrician is a bit off making mistakes and occasionally having an emotional outburst. This is perhaps reflected in the slightly schizophrenic opening chapters, when Pratchett was still trying to make Carrot the viewpoint character, until he realized it should logically be Vimes. But once the dragon appears and the plot realy gets rolling, things thunder along in the typical Pratchettarian style of humor, action and trenchant observation.
The audio version I listened too was also a bit off. It has a different reader than the later novels, and he made the decision to do Vimes' lines with a bit of a drunken nasal echo the whole way through, which can get a bit tiresome to listen to.
Reccomended
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Date: 2010-03-29 04:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-03 08:59 am (UTC)